Fabulous Films Ltd, out now

Three interwoven stories about a terrible curse: A young woman encounters a malevolent supernatural force while searching for her missing sister in Tokyo, a high school prank goes horribly wrong and a woman with a deadly secret moves into a Chicago apartment building.

This new Blu-ray release of the 2006 sequel to the 2004 US remake of The Grudge is again directed by series creator Takashi Shimizu and brings back Sarah Michelle Gellar (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) as nurse Karen.

A sequel to a remake automatically risks the law of diminishing returns, and by having three separate stories it spreads the load, but ultimately there’s nothing new or special here. Not a patch on the Japanese original or even its American version, The Grudge 2 suffers from doing nothing new and by not being prepared to be extreme or daring. This PG-13 horror for people who don’t want to be scared passes the time but leaves no impression on the memory,

A further direct-to-video sequel followed in 2009 to even more damning reviews and another remake followed earlier this year. On the evidence of The Grudge 2, fatigue had already set in and subsequent entries would be flogging an equally dead horse.

Over an hour of extras include Grudge 2 Storyline Development, various featurettes, deleted scenes and an alternate ending.

Verdict: Uninspired, mild horror that feels too embarrassed to be original or scary. This really should have been the end of the road. 3/10

Nick Joy